PRI Study

Findings and Suggestions

Minimum quorum for the Gram Sabha: In Kerala a minimum quorum is required to conduct a Gram Sabha. If the minimum quorum is not met then the Grama Sabha is adjourned. Similarly in this Panchayat too a minimum quorum needs to be fixed, if this is ensured then the practice of going to homes to get signatures in the attendance register will be curbed. This will also give the villagers’ a sense of responsibility because they will know that without them the Gram Sabha will not take place. Awareness of the people will go up and the procedures will become more transparent. While fixing the quorum emphasis should also be laid on ensuring participation of marginalized sections of the society like SCs, STs and women.

Develop own Criteria for selection of beneficiary: The BPL list of the government is not full proof. Some times people who are eligible to be included in the list are left out and those who do not deserve to be in that category are included. One of the conditions for selection of individual beneficiaries for any project is that the person should be from the BPL list. To prevent wrong persons being selected on the basis of this list the villagers should mutually agree and develop their own criteria. For each parameter a corresponding weightage should be given. For example lack of house, number of daughters, etc can be taken as a parameter and a corresponding weightage should be given.

Separate committees for men and women: Even if women are given equal representation in a committee alongside men they tend to remain passive and men dominate the proceedings. If there is a women only committee then they will have to take the initiative and in the process get empowered and develop self-reliance and confidence. For example, in one village of Bhuj, where one of the authors was working on livelihood planning

Villagers should be involved in all phases of the project: To build their capacity and confidence and also to achieve self-reliance the villagers should be involved in the planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation stages of the project.

Awareness building and educational work: To ensure sustainability stress should be laid on awareness building and educational work. Only when the villagers are well informed can they make the right decision.

Bio Gas plants: Women, like all over India suffer from respiratory problems because of the amount of smoke they inhale. Bio gas plants will help in reducing this.

• A stronger element of gender sensitisation would have to be introduced into capacity building programmes at all levels and greater attention given at the village level to assessing women’s skills and training needs.
• In order to introduce public accountability, social auditing should be given due importance. The completion of the developmental works should be approved by the gram sabha and only after it the utilization certificate should be granted by the authorities concerned. Without gram sabha approval the completion certificate issued by govt. departments should not be treated as valid
• The planning for all the 29 items at the three levels of the PR system would be difficult unless the various constituent components of each of them are segregated and allocated at the appropriate levels of the three tiers of the PR system. This will help in dividing responsibilities between the three tiers in respect of planning and implementation with a clear demarcation of authority, resource sharing and also specifying the role of official hierarchy in each line department.

Suggestions for the role of the NGO

Panchayati Raj aims to bring about social transformation promoting equality and social justice and empowerment of the weaker sections of the society. Gram panchayat, the lowest tier in the official machinery, is closest to the ground level and to the people. But as part of the official machinery, they are subject to all the limitations that official structures are subject to. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) too are close to the ground realities and to the people. In this context the NGOs which have certain strengths and uniqueness can contribute their might to initiate the process of transition, organize the groups for the changes and build the capacities to play fuller role in the democratic societies. Because of their rapport with the people, and flexibility in making the micro level interventions, the NGO sector can take up the tasks, which the government cannot otherwise perform well.

• Capacity building skills which provide an ideal basis for informing people of their rights and encouraging them to act collectively to claim them
• Role in building up the relationship of responsibility between the panchayati raj institutions and the gram Sabhas

Suggested information flow diagram